Laura's Miscellaneous Musings: The 2023 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

The 2023 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review

I'm back from an absolutely fantastic weekend at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival!

The festival opened at the Palm Springs Cultural Center's Camelot Theatre on Thursday night, May 11th, and ran through Sunday, May 14th.

This festival is always a great time seeing some wonderful movies among friends. Seen below, festival host and programmer Alan K. Rode with Steven C. Smith, the biographer of Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner. We were happy to be able to enjoy a quick lunch with Steven during the weekend.

Opening night featured a screening of THE KILLING (1956), seen here on one of the gorgeous posters from Brian Light's collection. Brian shared posters throughout the course of the weekend.

The opening night guest was very special: James B. Harris, who produced THE KILLING as a young man. He is now 94 and brought down the house with his vivid recollections and sense of humor.

There festival was very well attended throughout the weekend. Here, some of the guests enjoy the reception in front of the Camelot following the opening night screening and interview.

It was a "noir night" with the promise of more great things to come!

I posted the entire schedule here last month. A number of the films were shown in 35mm, an increasing rarity these days. I was able to see 12 of the festival's 13 films, including five movies which were completely new to me.

Look for reviews of the new-to-me films here in the future; first-time favorites were DECOY (1946), THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (1947), DIAL 1119 (1950), and SCANDAL SHEET (1952).

During the weekend Alan Rode shared movie introduction duties with his Film Noir Foundation colleague Eddie Muller, seen here signing some of his books. His latest title is EDDIE MULLER'S NOIR BAR, published this month.

Jeffrey Mantor (below at left) of Larry Edmunds Bookshop was on hand to handle the book sales. Alan joined Eddie at the book signing table; his newest book is on the film BLOOD ON THE MOON. I've read it and thought it was excellent; look for more on it in an upcoming Western RoundUp column at Classic Movie Hub.

During the weekend I was also fortunate to meet writer Kirk Ellis, who has a new book out on RIDE LONESOME (1959), published in the same series as BLOOD ON THE MOON. I happened to have the RIDE LONESOME book with me and was able to get it signed!

Below, my husband's camera caught Hallmark writer-director Ron Oliver, who I've chatted with at past festivals, at the book signing table. I most recently enjoyed Ron's screenplay for Hallmark's JOLLY GOOD CHRISTMAS (2022).

It was great to see author Luis Reyes again! We first met at the Lone Pine Film Festival last fall. He's the author of the TCM-Running Press book VIVA HOLLYWOOD and recently hosted a 35th anniversary screening of STAND AND DELIVER (1988) at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

Another beautiful Brian Light poster! The colors are remarkable. I hadn't seen THE NAKED CITY (1948) for many years and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting it during the weekend.

A pair of excellent Alan Ladd films were shown at the festival, THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942) and APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER (1950). David Ladd came and discussed his remarkable father prior to the showing of THIS GUN FOR HIRE, which made Alan Ladd a star.

There were more special guests on Saturday, when Alan was joined by Victoria Mature...

...as well as Nicholas von Sternberg and his wife, posing here with Brian Light's poster for THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (1942). Victoria's father, Victor Mature, costarred in the film, while Nicholas's father Josef was the director.

Here are a couple shots of their conversation prior to the screening of a restored 35mm print from Eastman House:

A photo of Eddie Muller introducing THE LADY GAMBLES (1949) on Sunday:

And here's an Italian poster for SCANDAL SHEET:

As usual, additional links for this year's coverage will be added below so that all of my festival coverage may be easily found in one place.

Along with reviewing some of the films I'll also be sharing posts on our visit to the Living Desert Zoo and on classic film stars' Palm Springs homes. (Would you believe the caretaker of Bing Crosby's former estate waved our car over and invited us in? That was wildly unexpected and fun.)

Additional festival posts: Tonight's Movie: Scandal Sheet (1952) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival; A Visit to Palm Springs: Homes of Classic Stars; Tonight's Movie: The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival; Tonight's Movie: Dial 1119 (1950) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival; Tonight's Movie: Decoy (1946) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival; Tonight's Movie: The Shanghai Gesture (1941) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.